Thursday, December 18, 2014

This morning I
started from home accompanying a Press Photographer friend who took me to
Sriharikota, in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh. This place is in Nellore Dist,
separates Pulicat lake from Bay of Bengal.
The nearest town and railway station is Sullurpeta. Hundreds of people
were making a beeline towards the coast to watch a great event.

At 09.30 am, ISRO successfully
tested its most powerful satellite launch vehicle that can put heavier payloads
into space. Once operational, the
Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) Mark III will be able to put
satellites weighing about 4 tonnes into orbit, almost doubling India's current
capability. The experiment today helped
ISRO test the vehicle's atmospheric stability and its design. It was powered by
two engines while a third is under development.

launch of GSLV - photo credits : www.isro.org

The Press Release of
ISRO reads : ** The first experimental flight (GSLV Mk-III
X/CARE) of India's next generation launch vehicle GSLV Mk-III was successfully
conducted today (December 18, 2014) morning from Satish Dhawan Space Centre
SHAR, Sriharikota. Also known as LVM3-X/CARE, this suborbital experimental
mission was intended to test the vehicle performance during the critical
atmospheric phase of its flight and thus carried a passive (non-functional)
cryogenic upper stage.

The mission began with the launch of GSLV Mk-III at 9:30
am IST from the Second Launch Pad as scheduled and about five and a half
minutes later, carried its payload - the 3775 kg Crew Module Atmospheric
Re-entry Experiment (CARE) - to the intended height of 126 km. Following this,
CARE separated from the upper stage of GSLV Mk-III and re-entered the
atmosphere and safely landed over Bay of Bengal with the help of its parachutes
about 20 minutes 43 seconds after lift-off.

Two massive S-200 solid strap-on boosters, each carrying
207 tons of solid propellants, ignited at vehicle lift-off and after
functioning normally, separated 153.5 seconds later. L110 liquid stage ignited
120 seconds after lift-off, while S200s were still functioning, and carried
forward for the next 204.6 seconds. CARE
separated from the passive C25 cryogenic upper stage, successfully reentered
the atmosphere and gently landed over Andaman Sea about 1600 km from
Sriharikota, there by successfully concluding the GSLV Mk-III X/CARE mission. **